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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

March 10, 2015

William Porterfield

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND

Q. After an impressive start and winning toss, and making 7 runs in 4 overs, why did the batsmen slow down? Was it they were bowling well in the middle overs?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I think it was a combination. We lost two quick wickets there, and we came out of the first ten, and we had 12 or 13 overs, I'm not sure when it was, we lost a couple quick wickets then, and that slowed us down slightly. But we managed to pick that up again coming down the back end in the 30th over, and now we had a bit of a platform to go again. And every time we started to pick up a bit of momentum we managed to lose a wicket, which is slightly disappointing. But I like that our lads came in and played with freedom and intense from the off, which I think you need to do, and you have to have that confidence, and the confidence was there in the changes to back lads to go ahead and do that. We kept managing to losing wickets which kept us back from kicking on to what would have been a competitive total.

Q. Two areas of Ireland's game which isn't as strong as other areas are your ability to score fluently against spin and then your seam attack. Is there a lack of depth of skill in these departments and how would you see yourself overcoming it? Is it a lack of exposure to the challenges?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I think exposure is a big thing. You probably heard me say it a thousand times, we've played nine ODIs against top eight of the top ten teams in the last four years in between World Cups, which is not a lot when you consider a lot of countries are playing 25, 30 plus a year. So that's disappointing from our point of view to not get that experience and get those games under our belts. But, yeah, look I think the skill factor is there. I think we did slow down. You have to give a bit of credit to Ashwin and the last bowl, they bowled very well. We could have put them under a bit more pressure, but we didn't want to go too hot too soon after losing those couple of wickets. I think we picked up a bit of momentum, as I said, coming down to the power play, but every time we did that we managed to lose a wicket at crucial times. I think their spinners bowled well and they got a bit of assistance. Yeah, we managed to lose those wickets at crucial times which slowed us down.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Look, we don't have lads at the minute coming in bowling 90 clicks, which a lot of sides do. The lads have great skills, and what we do have, we've come up on a very flat wicket. You see the way their lads played. I think it's just a very good pitch in what is a small ground and defending an under par total and that makes it very difficult. Once lads get a start, it's very hard to claw away. We had a couple chances there at the start, we probably should have taken that off Darwin, and he's probably on 10 or 12 then and that makes a big difference. You take that and you nick another one off, and all of a sudden you're 20 for 2, and that puts them for pressure instead of getting away for 70 for none after 10 on a very good pitch.

Q. As an opponent, what do you think India's main strength is?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I think they've got a lot of strengths. I think you've seen the way they're batting. Their batting was there, they got off to a bit of a start. But they've got lads coming in through the middle orders to keep the momentum going and pick the read up from ball one. They've got lads bowling now late or mid 140s as well, which in Australian pitch is obviously not necessarily the quickest pitch today, it was a pretty flat pitch. But I think all the games now might be in Australia from now on, so the system is appropriate for the spin attack. I that they've got all the attributes there to go all the way.

Q. Not having a player of Kevin O'Brien's skill and up rating anywhere near his best, what impact has that had on the team?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I think he's shown glimpses in the tournament. He came in and got 50 out of 20 balls early on in the competition, and he got a quick 20 the other night. He's got all the thanks in the world. He only faced two, three balls today, and that can happen. But -- with the bowl, as I said again, we're playing on pitches like the pace today was a flat pace, and all the pitches we have played on have been great pitches. So you haven't got much margin for error. I think he bowled reasonably well after that. Tonight I don't think he was too far off what he can do. But the format makes it pretty hard as well. He's bowled a lot of his overs in crucial times for us. He's bowled a lot of overs in the power plays and coming off his last 15 overs, I'd say he's bowled 75% of his overs at least in those overs. You have to take that into consideration when you look at stats and figures in my opinion, because when you come down to there, it's a very difficult job, and you can't just look at stats and go he's not doing well. But if he bowls at that time of the game, you expect things to be slightly different.

Q. Was the team's action the thought to give it to Craig Young or Peter Chase perhaps?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Oh, look, Thomas bowled very well, and he's done very well in every session we've had. He's the one that stuck his hand up and he's got that chance to come in and press, and obviously things didn't go very well for him in his first over, but I thought he came back very well and picked up those couple of wickets and that did his confidence a world of good. He strengthens our batting as well. He can bat higher than 8th, but right now he comes in at 8, and he strengthens us all around. I think he's a fantastic fielder and his selection was justified there.

Q. You had batted for the entire section where you said we didn't want to go too hard too soon, but the Indians bowled the overs at a very quick pace. Did you at any point in time look at the scoreboard and see so many overs were gone, because they put in 20 an hour.
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, they obviously got 15 overs and were rushing around, but we didn't let that affect us as to where we were at. We knew the size of the ground. We could always catch things up at the back end. But as I said, we just lost wickets in crucial stages there, and we lost two in quick succession. We built a decent platform, we just didn't manage to kick on to where we'd like. But you have to give them credit as much as anything as well.

Q. You've scored the highest total of any team against India in this tournament. So just in terms of batting, does that give you confidence going into the game against Pakistan?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, most definitely. We've been confident with the batting throughout, and the highest score against India in this competition as well. That's good for ourselves. I think that we played very well and for long periods of that game there today with the bat, but it just shows how you've got to be the way India batted there. Once you get that side, you've got to really kick on and score hundreds. We got a couple of 60s and 70s there and turned out India at 120. Then it makes things a lot easier for the lads in the all around as well. That turns to 260, 270, and they're 320, 330 plus.

Q. You looked very comfortable chasing sides in this tournament so far. Against West Indies you actually chased absolutely perfectly. And after what happened to England last night, you're playing the same venue on Sunday in a do-or-die game. Do you particularly think about -- do you have a preference as to whether you bat or bowl first? Is your game plan surrounding the chase or would you look to bat again first?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: No, a lot comes down to conditions. I think we've won starting, we've won chasing, and we've chased down over 300, and we've set 330-plus when we've batted first as well. And I think on any other day being out there again we would have gotten that 330-plus from the platform that we had. So, no, I'm confident whether we bat or chase, we'll take a look at things now moving on to Adelaide, but we're focused on each game as it comes. We've only finished this one now, so the next couple days we'll do our homework on Adelaide, and we'll have everything behind the scenes ready and it's just a matter of getting things right from there. So we'll look at Adelaide once we touchdown there.

Q. You had mentioned about Ashwin bowling, there wasn't too much purchase on the wicket, but still he went for 19 runs in his first 8 over spell, the most you faced as well. What aspect of bowling did you find challenging there?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: He just varied his pitch very well. As I said he commanded his bowling there when we had lost those couple of wickets. So he just, as I said, he varied his pitch quite well. It was a bit more holding up than spinning, but there was a bit of grip there for him. So, look, I think maybe we could have been slightly more aggressive in that period, but I was happy with where we were at and how we had gone. As I said, we lost wickets just at crucial stages when we started to kick on the game. But on another day, we get through that and we kick on again, and we get up to the totals that are going to be very competitive in this tournament.

Q. India affected a couple of good, good catches and great run outs. Do you think this Indian fielding unit is kind of a crack fielding unit, a good fielding unit which can be compared with some of the better units in the World Cup?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, you look at the fielding side they have, they've got a very good fielding unit, so there is no reason why not. As you see now, (Indiscernible) got the run out there, and you hit the stumps and you have chances at run outs. They looked pretty athletic as well in the field, so, yeah, there is no reason why not. There's something you can control is how well you can field and how good you can be in the field. You can always improve in the field, and there is no reason you can't be.

Q. How do you rate the DRS for fielding.
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: The what, sir?

Q. (Indiscernible)?
WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Umpires call what umpires call. If he had given out it was our way, if he didn't then it wasn't. It was a good decision, as far as I'm concerned.
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